Sous Chef Series: Terri Wu’s Vegan Banana-Coffee Cake

When Terri Wu started at Farallon a dozen years ago, she had, by her own admission, “no idea what I was doing.” Prior to starting at the San Francisco restaurant, she and was co-owner of a bike messenger company.

She began in the savory kitchen and quickly transitioned to the pastry department, which she now leads. A bike accident last summer–and its accompanying six fractured bones–has sidelined the chef for much of 2011, but she used her time away from work wisely, experimenting with vegan desserts, using her vegan brother as a guinea pig. The vegan banana bread she shared with the last edition of the Sous Chef Series is enriched with nutty flaxseed and whole wheat flour, flavored with coffee and moistened by a combination of oil and vegan mayonnaise.

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